User blog:McLarenP1 Boy/The Problems with Forza Motorsport 7's Exclusive Cars and Car Collection Systems
It has only been 138 days (at the time of writing this) since Forza Motorsport 7 came out for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, and it has surely received moderate to strong criticism for how it executed its Exclusive Cars and Car Collection systems. While I have been VERY critical of both systems, I was not able to voice my opinion about them until today. Given my experience with Forza Motorsport 7, it has been both a good and awfully disappointing experience to me. While it does have its pros, such as the return of many cars from Forza Motorsport 6 or Forza Horizon 2 and earlier titles, as well as the console game debuts of cars like the Bugatti Chiron and Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, it actually has more cons than you think. In particular, the Exclusive Cars and Car Collection Systems. Here, I will point out what many players have said about these systems. Also, feel free to take a good look at this topic in the Forza Motorsport Forums made by OnePoint21GWs. NOTE: Certain words will be CAPITALIZED and/or bolded for emphasis, much like how ShinnyShin does it in his blog posts at the Asphalt Wiki. Exclusive Cars .]] "Exclusive Cars" are the cars that cannot be bought from the "Buy Cars" screen. You earn them in these ways: * Forza Driver's Cup rewards (Showcase or Championship completion; latter is always a Forza Edition car) * Bounty Hunter (my least favorite way of obtaining exclusive cars) * Forzathon (my most favorite way of obtaining exclusive cars) * Driver Level Milestone Rewards * Leagues * Specialty Dealer * Auction House Also, let me point out that while I do not fully hate the idea of exclusive cars in a racing game, I am very critical of how Forza Motorsport 7 approaches exclusive cars and to what extent it does so. Forza Horizon 3's approach was very much acceptable in my view. No way to obtain them? This is a major problem with Exclusive Cars. I strongly believe that locking cars and making them unobtainable for a long time WILL drive people away from the game. Let's take OnePoint21GWs from the Forza Motorsport Forums. He bought a 2014 Dodge Charger SRT8 in real life, just about one week before Forza Motorsport 7 was released. The game has the 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8, which is also the same as the 2014 Charger that OnePoint21GWs bought. Unfortunately, even 4 months into the game's life cycle, the Charger '12 is still UNOBTAINABLE in the game in any way, shape, or form. Any other car whose unlocking method is neither one of the above mentioned methods is also victim to this. Cannot be auctioned off or removed? FM7 Lykan HyperSport Front.jpg|An example of an Exclusive Car that almost nobody has, the W Motors Lykan HyperSport. Thanks a lot, Dan, for an impossible Bounty Hunter event with this car as a reward! You could have chosen a Forza Edition car instead! But no, you chose a $3.4 million hypercar that can't even compete with the McLaren P1 or GTA Spano as the top prize! And now it's unobtainable. FM7 KoenigseggRegera Front.jpg|Yet another example of an Exclusive Car with almost no player ownership, the Koenigsegg Regera. How has this not been released yet? This is another reason why I despise the Exclusive Cars system. In this case, there are many cars in the game that can NEVER be sold in the Auction House and/or removed from the player's garage. These include: * VIP Membership compensation cars (Jaguar P7 ME, Maserati GT S FE, Acura NSX '16 FE, and Camaro '17 FE) - These only apply if these cars were obtained as part of the VIP Membership compensation; otherwise, these cars can be obtained in the Forza Driver's Cup * All cars obtained through Leagues or Bounty Hunter * Ford F-150 Raptor Project Scorpio Edition (if you accidentally deleted the message from which you can redeem the Ford Raptor PS, you will never be able to get this car) Not all people enjoy Bounty Hunter or Leagues. I am not only someone who despises online races in Forza Motorsport, but also someone who does not take kindly to Bounty Hunter events, especially with either a car and track combo like the Ford Mustang '16 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca or a rival driver who only about 1.17% of the overall player base can actually beat. Because of these problems, people will never be able to get the Lykan HyperSport, Ferrari 612, Holden Torana FE, etc. without having to resort to dirty, illegitimate methods like modding or hacking or having to wait for a long time! NOT everyone wants to get below 01:40.000 on Laguna Seca with a Ford Mustang '16. This leads back into the previous problem (see above), as almost no one has the Koenigsegg Regera or the Chrysler VH Valiant Charger R/T E49 (zero players in the Charger's case). I am glad I actually kept Forza Horizon 3 for the Lykan HyperSport and the Holden Torana FE (which is the Holden Torana HE in Horizon), and many other cars. Also, adding to this, in Free Play, you can rent any car you want, but renting is and will NEVER be the same as actually owning the car because when you own the car, you can actually paint or upgrade and tune it. Misleading advertising / artificial longevity FM7 18 Lambo Super Front.jpg|Here we have a #18 Lambo Super, which is... FM7 14 Lambo Super Front.jpg|...literally the same car as the #14 Lambo Super, but duplicated and with a different livery. FM7 Chevy Camaro 16 Front.jpg|The Chevy Camaro '16 was confirmed to be one of the 700+ cars to arrive to the game, but it was never made available for purchase, only available through an October Bounty Hunter event. FM7 45 Porsche GT3 Front.jpg|The #45 Porsche GT3 was also confirmed to be part of the 700+ cars, but again, it's an Exclusive Car, albeit one that's easier to obtain than the Chevy Camaro '16. Another problem with Forza Motorsport 7 is that it is advertised as having over 700 cars, yet fails to reveal that many of these 700+ cars are either Exclusive Cars or cars that are duplicates of one another (e.g. the race cars with their different liveries), and if you couldn't participate in a time-limited event that gives out an Exclusive Car or buy a Specialty Dealer car due to real life or any reason whatsoever, too bad for you because you'll now be forced to rely on the Auction House or wait for the car to pop up in another future event. Only slightly more than 600 cars can be purchased normally (excluding DLC). I was fortunate enough to have bought the McLaren P1 GTR only because that car is NEITHER an Exclusive Car NOR a DLC car in the game. I do believe that the Exclusive Cars exist not because of "longevity", as that would be rather naive and misleading. There are players who have a "flavor of the month" gaming style – that is, these players constantly buy the hottest new video game of the month (e.g. Monster Hunter World, Dragon Ball FighterZ). "Flavor of the month" gamers won't get back to Forza Motorsport 7 just for an opportunity to earn a locked car like the Koenigsegg Regera or Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster. On the other hand, many serious or loyal players, which include very few of my friends on Xbox, planned to play this game up to the release of Forza Motorsport 8 or Forza Horizon 4, but are inconvenienced by Exclusive Cars, which also limits what players can do. Some of my online friends have actually chosen not to get Forza Motorsport 7, citing the Exclusive Cars as a big reason. I find myself playing this game less and less, especially due to having better games like Project CARS 2, Halo 5: Guardians, and the above-mentioned Forza Horizon 3. Project CARS 2 is likely to appeal to players who have been disappointed both by Forza Motorsport 7 and Gran Turismo Sport. In addition, Halo 5: Guardians is one of my new favorite games to play, and Forza Horizon 3 is still one of the most critically and commercially successful games of 2016. Feel free to check the Forza Motorsport 7/Cars page to see the game's full car list and how many cars are available either as DLC or through the "Buy Cars" menu. Car Collection This is another system that drives away people from the game, as it starts everyone off at Tier 1 and locks away ALL cars from Tiers higher than the player's current one (excluding cars rewarded through gameplay), forcing the player to then collect other cars that (s)he will most likely never use just to get to the Tier that houses the car (s)he so highly desires. Looking at this system, I am immediately reminded of similar systems from other games like Middle-earth: Shadow of War with its rarity classification system for Orcs. Restrictive systems like this can already be traced back to the worst of gaming: free-to-play mobile games, such as Asphalt 8: Airborne and Asphalt Street Storm Racing, the latter of which actually restricts cars to Gift Boxes. More locked cars? FM7 VW Ghia Front.jpg|You REALLY have to buy a lot of cars that you will most likely never use anyway, like this VW Ghia here... FM7 McLaren P1 GTR Front.jpg|...until you get access to a hypercar like this McLaren P1™ GTR right here. This is yet another problem that I have with the Car Collection system. As mentioned above, as it starts everyone off at Tier 1 and locks away ALL cars from Tiers higher than the player's current one (excluding cars rewarded through gameplay), forcing the player to then collect other cars that (s)he will most likely never use just to get to the Tier that houses the car (s)he so highly desires. This will result in a LOT of time wasted grinding, and that time could be used for more productive things! right from the start of the game...]] When I first saw this system of locking cars, I was dumbstruck with anger. It's 2018, and yet game developers and publishers are becoming more and more okay with restrictive elements like this that can actually be traced back to free-to-play mobile games? Unless more and more gamers speak out against game publishers becoming greedier, we will lose. Just so you know, Asphalt 8: Airborne, the free-to-play mobile racing game that has been absolute garbage since June 2014 (and is even worse ever since Vivendi took over in June 2016), nearly DESTROYED my life but I fortunately quit it last year. My reasons for permanently quitting can be found HERE (don't forget to check out the user blogs of Mike458 and ShinnyShin too; they're good reads). I would rather make future Forza games like Forza Horizon 3 where you can buy almost all the cars in the game right from the start without being restricted by a Car Collection system. Also, don't forget that the Car Collection system could potentially become a Pay-2-Win-like system once tokens are reintroduced. Tokens, which are bought with REAL WORLD CURRENCY, could potentially be used to bypass the restrictions of the Car Collection system, but these are just my thoughts and predictions. In addition, many of the cars in Forza Motorsport 7 (Exclusive Cars or not) have actually appeared in previous Forza titles, the vast majority of them having been made immediately playable in their last Forza appearance prior to Forza Motorsport 7. More wasted grinding? As mentioned above, the Car Collection system locks away cars that are at least one Tier higher than the player's current one, which then forces the player to collect other cars that (s)he will most likely never use, not even once, just to get to the tier that houses his/her most desired car. Let's say you just got the game and you wanted to buy the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento. Is it possible? Nope! Not unless you raise your Collector Tier to 5, which takes a LONG time (even with all DLC cars, Hoonigan Car Pack and The Fate of the Furious Car Pack included), as you will have to WASTE your first 100,000 CR by buying cars that you will most likely NEVER use just to get to Tier 2, grind CR by doing long races in Free Play and Forza Driver's Cup, and then waste it all again by buying cars that will most likely rust in your garage just to get to Tier 3, and so on and so forth. By the time you have even reached Tier 5, you will have become very exhausted and collected many cars that you will very likely never use, not even once. This is made worse with the fact that changing Driver Assists NO LONGER increases the earned CR for the race, and CR is HARDER to earn in Forza Motorsport 7 than in Forza Motorsport 6 or Forza Horizon 3. Why that is so, I DO NOT KNOW. Could it be because people complained about CR being too easy to earn in Forza Motorsport 6? I guess that could be so. To make matters even worse, almost all of the DLC cars (except the Samsung QLED Car Pack) only award a Collector Score between +25 and +80, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to increase Collector Score by buying two of the same car. However, with all DLC cars owned, minus the free Ford Raptor PS, you only get a Collector Score of 4,300 (as of February 15, 2018), which already unlocks Tier 4. Exclude the Hoonigan, The Fate of the Furious, and VIP packs, and you get only 3,480, which only unlocks Tier 3. Like, how will this make the game any better? It actually makes it even worse. Many of Forza Motorsport 7's rivals, like Project CARS 2 and Gran Turismo Sport, do NOT feature this type of restrictive system. Project CARS 2 actually has every single car unlocked right from the start, and that's a PLUS. Note that NOT EVERYONE has the time to grind for their favorite thing in a video game. Some would want to pay real money instead, others want to grind, but there are still others like me who would want to skip it entirely. CMAN122 has a really good point: the Car Collection system has been designed around the Forza Driver's Cup, which forces the player to have to buy a new car for each race series only to likely never use it again (and sell it, if ever). This then leads to more grinding that amounts for nothing. Another problem is that some cars in the game are ridiculously overpriced compared to previous titles. Here, we have SUVs costing well over 400,000 CR despite having only been usually priced above 100,000 CR in previous titles. These SUVs are rather unpopular and will likely be sold or removed from the player's garage after being used at least once. Auction House / Specialty Dealer / DLC Fortunately, with the Auction House, it is possible to bypass the restrictions of the Car Collection system by being able to outright buy any available car there regardless of your Collection Tier. Specialty Dealer cars can also be freely bought, so long as you have enough CR. DLC cars, if not already obtained, can be obtained for free and bypass ALL restrictions of the Car Collection system, which then means that new players can actually get the Bugatti Chiron or Lotus Elise GT1 right from the start. On the flip side, though, the Auction House is not without its problems. You are still likely to be outbid or get the auction stolen from you by someone who bought out the auction, and by the time that happens, your CR balance will likely have run dry. In addition, Specialty Dealer cars will never make an appearance again until one or two months after, so in that case, snag them while you still can (unless you already have the cars in the rotation). Due to becoming more and more critical of the game, I have taken the risk of missing out on many Specialty Dealer cars, like the Aston Martin One-77. Closing I'd like to close this blog post off with a summary of the problems surrounding the Exclusive Cars and Car Collection systems in Forza Motorsport 7. Here they are: * Exclusive Cars ** Unobtainable cars ** Cars can never be auctioned or removed ** Misleading advertising and artificial longevity * Car Collection ** More locked cars ** More pointless grinding ** Pros and cons surrounding Auction House, Specialty Dealer, and DLC As someone who gets Ultimate Edition releases of Forza titles since 2016, Forza Motorsport 7 will MOST LIKELY be the last Motorsport game I will every buy. While a good game, it actually has more cons than pros, although it has a lower con-to-pro ratio than many mobile racing games. No wonder I am still playing Forza Horizon 3. I somwhat fear for the future of Forza Horizon 4; even though Playground Games does listen and has already declared that they will NOT include the Mods system of Forza Motorsport 6 and Forza Motorsport 7, I still fear that Microsoft Studios may find a way to make obtaining cars in Forza Horizon 4 less player-friendly. This blog post contains my thoughts and opinions about the Exclusive Cars and Car Collection system in Forza Motorsport 7 and how the game approaches both. This is purely my opinion. Category:Blog posts